SDLT refund for multiple dwelling

LollyH77

Has anyone successfully received a refund from HMRC for overpaid stamp duty? I bought a property last March and have had numerous letters from specialist companies telling me I’ve overpaid stamp duty by 10K because the property has an annexe. My conversation with HMRC resulted in them sending me a lot of very complicated rules but they said on the phone I could have a case. My conveyancer is saying she can’t chase the refund on my behalf but to ‘be very cautious’. Obviously this isn’t an insubstantial amount. My question is, has anyone been in a similar position and successful claimed a refund? If so, what was the process? I don’t want to use a company as their fee is 20%. Thank you!

Slithery

There have been a few cases of people being successful on these forums that I can think of off hand - have you tried searching for them?

LollyH77

Yes, I have. Useful information but it doesn’t fully answer my questions so looking for personal experience.

00ec25

LollyH77 wrote: »

Yes, I have. Useful information but it doesn’t fully answer my questions so looking for personal experience.

which would be specific to the person and therefore irrelevant to you

if you found the info from HMRC complex then why is 80% of something not worth having?

there are times to stand on principle and there are times to accept that trying to DIY is just counter productive if you are out of your depth and trying to rely on the "experiences" of internet strangers to "guide" you

AdrianC

LollyH77 wrote: »

Has anyone successfully received a refund from HMRC for overpaid stamp duty? I bought a property last March and have had numerous letters from specialist companies telling me I’ve overpaid stamp duty by 10K because the property has an annexe.

On what basis? And how do they know?

JudgeDekker

Answer to AdrianC: I think the accountants firms pay an intern to search the land registry website, looking for cases where there is a single transaction with multiple titles.

AdrianC

JudgeDekker wrote: »

Answer to AdrianC: I think the accountants firms pay an intern to search the land registry website, looking for cases where there is a single transaction with multiple titles.

Are we assuming that's what's happened?

(It's probably automated, rather than a minimum wage office junior)

SmashedAvacado

The test isnt multiple titles, its where there are multiple dwellings - so i suspect they have to look at the agents particulars. The refund is not discretionary - you are either entitled to the relief or not. So the thing to do if you want to do it DIY is to look at the pages on the guidance that cover the relief and work through whether you qualify.

If your solicitor knew the property you were buying had an annexe then you might ask them why they have put you into the position where you have overpaid SDLT....presumably you mentioned the annexe to them or they saw the agents particulars. you might find them more willing to help if you put it like that to them.

LollyH77

Thank you for your reply. As I said in my initial post, I was looking for any experiences of people who have successfully claimed and, more specifically, what that process was. The searches I’ve done here have been useful but I wanted a bit more detail. I thought the whole point of a forum was hearing from ‘internet strangers’ however, being the first time I’ve used one, didn’t expect responses to be quite so hostile.

martindow

LollyH77 wrote: »

... didn’t expect responses to be quite so hostile.

I can't see any hostility in the replies, but there are suggestions on how to proceed.

[Deleted User]

LollyH77 wrote: »

Thank you for your reply. As I said in my initial post, I was looking for any experiences of people who have successfully claimed and, more specifically, what that process was. The searches I’ve done here have been useful but I wanted a bit more detail. I thought the whole point of a forum was hearing from ‘internet strangers’ however, being the first time I’ve used one, didn’t expect responses to be quite so hostile.

You're in a catch-22 situation. You are asking for personal experiences, which people have posted about previously but you're not interested in those posts because they're not exactly the same as yours yet you want to here from people who've previously done this.